Conner's Bank

Here’s a “truck bank” I made for a little friend of ours. He’s closer to being family than friend, and I included a pic of him in his Halloween costume. Anyway, I made the “bank” from a plan out of an old issue of Woodsmith. I made it with Mahogany I acquired about 25 yrs. ago. You don’t find many Mahogany toys, but the wood works easily, and Conner’s certainly worth it… The finish is a wipe-on poly with a final coat rubbed out with wax in 0000 steel wool.The “coin vault” is accessible through the chassis in the bottom. The rear bumper is attached to a panel that slides out, revealing a wide slot in the bottom through which Conner will be able to shake out the coins. The trick is that the panel is held in place with an ingenious little catch that amounts to a shortened finish nail that passes through the fake rear axel, and into a hole in the sliding panel. The nail is kept in place with a ball-point pen spring. The exposed end of the nail is epoxied to the button visible in the photo of the overturned truck. You lift the button, pulling the nail out of the hole in the panel, freeing the panel to slide out when the rear bumper is pulled. After getting out enough coins for your Skittles or Snickers, you slide the panel back in and the spring-loaded nail pops back into the hole, locking the panel in place, and dropping the button back to its position flush to the axel. Not exactly high security, but cute… A fun, straight-forward project.

-- Many things in this life can be taken from you. Your integrity is not one of them. It's yours until you give it up... Steve, Bakersfield, CA

Beautiful bank Charlie.You can’t start them saving soon enough these days : )Rockler has a similar plan on their site.They sell the kit that comes with the wheels, PO box door and steering wheel.The plans are free download.I found it searching Woodsmith magazine issues on Google.Thanks for the tip.And…He sure is a cutie !!